


Last Gift

by Tel



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Audio Format: MP3, Filk, Gen, Legend of the Prince, Russian Filk, Translations by Tel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-11-28 07:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tel/pseuds/Tel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The seventeenth song of the Russian rock opera "Legend of the Prince", translated with audio.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Performed by Е. Адеев 
> 
> Translated by Tel

[[direct audio link]](http://lavka.lib.ru/bujold/mp3/2-08%20last%20gift.mp3)

_Ezar:_  
I will grant my son this one last gift  
How could I say that he's not worth the fleet?  
His pyre will burn high over Escobar  
A noble sacrifice, without dishonor

I never wanted this to be your fate  
I thought there was no power in that dying curse  
But Yuri made a prophecy that you would be  
A scourge upon the planet, from your birth

Once you asked with a smile and a knowing look  
Why I'd so passionately sought the throne  
Why I'd slaughtered so many in my way  
Why I'd never offered him peace nor quarter

How should I have answered you, dearest son?  
I could have waited and watched as the chaos rose  
Smoke over the capital, no true lord  
Districts in rebellion, armies fighting!

Piotr's grief and fury drove him on to war  
Xav insisted that a madman held the throne  
We made our rebel compact, just us three  
And swore that we'd see Yuri brought to ruin

Maple leaves etched with silvery frost  
Drifted through the streets that cold October  
When at last the capital fell to me  
And nine months later we had our prince

Perhaps they should have called it 'Ezar's war'  
Executions followed, purges in the Districts  
In the end more blood was shed by my hand  
Than his, whose dead eyes I see in yours

It has been a difficult thirty years  
I raised up an empire, not my son  
What I have done for all of us is clear to see  
Across Barrayar, now grown strong and free

From the ruins I built my Imperium  
I cut past Komarr to force open the door  
And lost the fight that mattered - yours and mine  
But my son, you must realize - so did you


End file.
